attempting to put down roots

Tag Archives: baking

opps….its been a while since my last post!. i have been taking photos but not getting round to writing up posts – must do better!.

about a month ago there was a voucher in the local paper for 25% off the price of books at a particular bookshop. the bookshop was located in the eastern part of the city – an area i dont visit much, so my dad and i went on a little trip!. sadly the bookshop didnt have the range i’d have hoped for as i was after a particular book. they didnt have it, so after a nosey around, i decided to get this book i had borrowed from the library. i have another in this series and love them as they are real recipes from real everyday cooks, not chef designed restaurant meals that arent practical in the everyday kitchen.

my mum had requested i do some baking and wanted chocolate chips and brownies. i wanted to try a recipe from the book called oddfellow slice, and more cheese scones wouldnt go amiss!.

below is the brownie – this is a recipe from the internet as the book didnt have a recipe – its not a tradition NZ bake. as you can see, its a semi fail – even though i had the tray quite small, it was still too big and the brownie spread rather than grew!. the taste is ok, but not chocolatey enough for me, so i wont be trying this recipe again.

below are Ethel’s choc chip biccies from the book – they seem quite nice, maybe a touch too much butter or a touch over cooked. it was hard to tell as they are quite soft when they come out of the oven. i would make these again.

below are cheese scones – i use Brett McGregor’s recipe and they are lovely.

i didnt get a photo of the oddfellow slice. its a peppermint slice made with crushed oddfellow sweets and chocolate biscuits. its ok – i didnt crush either enough so its a bit chunky and didnt bind well. still delicious though!!

with no plans for the day, i decided to complete the first of the 12 Xmas ornaments i plan to stitch this year. i choose some backing fabric from the small pile i brought back from the UK and hand stitched the front and back together. i have a few IKEA cushions which i use the stuffing for these types of projects – far cheaper than a bag of filling fibres!. then i added a ribbon and buttons to finish off the piece. i’m pretty happy with ornament one. hopefully by ornament 12, things might be a little fancier!.

again, this is the Little House Needleworks Xmas freebie, found on their blog, rather than their website.

my parents are addicted to cheese scones, so i tried a new recipe on them today. this is from Brett McGregor’s first cookbook, and they were very well received, and preferred over the other recipe i had been using. my father has requested a batch be made on Wednesday and put in the freezer for him to enjoy while mum and i are in Australia!.

Today i finally tested out the new oven. I made my double choc chip biccies, and made tan slice for the first time, following the recipe from Baking makes things Better. i was thinking my effort was a bit of a fail, but looking at their pic again as i got the address for the link, i think i’m being a bit harsh with myself. I did nearly have a caramel incident in the microwave! – a bigger bowl is needed for next time!!.

this is my tan square – a plain cake base, a layer of caramel and a combo of cake crumbs and choc chips on top

when i went to make the biccies i discovered that the cheap and nasty new oven only has one oven rack in it!!

so i could only cook one tray at a time – thankfully they only take about 10mins!, but really!, one oven rack!. it hadnt dawned on me until that moment i was trying to load in 2 trays!.

finally, this is the view on the top of my microwave this evening – i’m channelling every country woman from back home who had tins of homemade baking ready for visitors!!.

the big clear box has the choc chippies in it and the other 2 have the tan slice. i’ll try take a better pic of the tan slice tomorrow!.

I have just found a ‘keeper’ recipe!!. i had a ripe banana sitting on the side and decided to make some muffins with it rather than throw it out – am trying to use up what i buy not waste food!. as i only had the one, albeit large banana, i decided to add choccie chips as well – always a plus!!. i searched through my ”modest” recipe collection and found a recipe in Nigella Lawson’s Domestic Goddess book. her recipe involved cherries – puke city – so i swapped them for chocolate chips, otherwise followed the recipe.

as an aside, i always follow the recipe faithfully the first time i use it, and then make changes after that based on my own tastes, but in this instance i didnt!! very reckless!!.

well, the end result are delicious!!. these will be made again!

there is no link on her website for this recipe, but if you have the book, its the banana, cherry and white chocolate muffins – i used milk chocolate instead of white as thats a better taste combo for me, with the banana.